Ingredients

• 500g chuck steak, cut into evenly sized chunks
• ¼ cup plain flour
• Rice bran oil
• 1 onion, peeled and roughly diced
• 1 medium sized carrot, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1tbsp tomato paste
• 2tbsp worchester sauce
• 2 ¼ cups beef stock
• 1 large sprig rosemary
• Handful of thyme sprigs

Dumplings: 

• 250g self raising flour
• 120g butter, cut into chunks and chilled
• 50g Mainland Creamy Blue Cheese
• Salt & Pepper 
• Extra Creamy Blue and chopped parsley to serve 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius. In a bowl, place the flour and steak. Use your hands or a spoon to toss the beef in the flour.
2. Heat a cast iron or baking dish on the stove to a medium temperature. Add a generous splash of rice bran oil, bring to temperature, then fry the pieces of steak until golden brown on all sides. Remove from the dish and set aside.
3. Leave the remaining oil in the pan, and add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until softened slightly, then lower the heat and stir in the tomato paste and worchester sauce, followed by the beef stock.
4. Add the beef back into the dish, stir to combine, then cover with a lid and place in the oven to cook for 3-4 hours.
5. When the beef is close to being tender, prepare the dumplings. Place the flour and cold butter into a food processor. Blitz until the butter and flour has formed a sandy texture, and there are no large lumps of butter left. Add the 50g of Creamy Blue cheese and seasoning, blending until the same consistency has been reached.
6. With the processor running, stream in cold water until a ball of dough forms. Tip out onto a floured bench top, knead lightly to bring the dough together, then roll into evenly sized balls (you should produce around 18-22 dependant on size).
7. Remove the stew from the oven, then increase the oven temperature to 180 degrees celcius. Stir in 1 cup of water to the stew, then dot each dumpling on top, but do not submerge. Cover with the lid, then bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden.
8. Sprinkle with the remaining blue cheese and chopped parsley to serve!